Ali Al Salem info

[Guest evil load]

Good Stuff: Base has a "morale" folder on one of the drives. About 300 GB of music, music videos, games and MOVIES!!! You can check out a vehicle and go to Kuwait City (if vehicles are available) or Camp Doha.

Bad Stuff: Dining Hall with many rats and cats. Aircrew Billeting...rooms are small, smaller or smallest. Expect three per room. Tents are a better option.

[ 12 January 2004, 13:25: Message edited by: evil load ]

[Scooter14]

I remember we had that at PSAB a couple years ago...till the Comm guys shut it down. They gave a weeks notice, and I don't think Southern Watch happened that week, since everyone was in Opstown downloading songs...

[Guest lovelacm]

Brother, I haven't been in a while... Used to "Fly REAL combat sorties out of old 'Triple-Seven.'" Building 777 was home last time I pulled a shift there.

It's been a couple of years, but I hear the standard reflective belt, PT gear, and customs/courtesy police are still around in full force.

The gym is quite nice... revamped the raquetball courts while I was there, and the cardio machines were nice as well. The Perimeter Road Run (about 7 miles) is enjoyable as long as you try it in the late evening when it "cools off" some.

Hit the "Haji Store" (as we called it) over on the Kuwaiti side of base... good pirate DVD selection, and other random BS available for purchase.

I sure hope ATOC has gotten better since my last visit. Lord knows they were a nightmare back in fall of '04.

Learn some Arabic before you go... just simple phrasebook stuff.. enough to say "Hello" ("Mar-hubba"), and Thank You ("Shu-kran") should get you through the first few days. A little courtesy on your part on the radio will go a long way.

"Crome XX, can you make 16 Thousand by XXXXX?"

"Crome XX - In-Shallah" ("God Willing") - Common response.

Bring a laptop and some DVDs. And hey, you might as well study a little while you're there. Keep sharp on the books while you have chance. But don't go nuts... have a little fun. Hit the gym when you can.... I enjoyed it when I was there... wish I had that schedule back here in peace-time so I could continue the routine.

My $1.25 on the place.. though I'd take it with a grain of salt as it's a little dated.

Be safe, and enjoy as much as you can.

Cheers!

Linda

[Berry]

Bring your swim trunks. The pool is nice this time of year.

As for food, get your hands on a van and eat at the Army LSA chow hall for every meal. It's run by KBR, and is far better than the Kuwaiti-paid for gruel at the AF chow hall.

One last thing: OKAS will be like every other CONUS base any day now. Be ready for all sorts of shoe clerk madness as referenced in other threads.

[Dead Last]

Originally posted by Space Monkey:

Bring your swim trunks. The pool is nice this time of year.

As for food, get your hands on a van and eat at the Army LSA chow hall for every meal. It's run by KBR, and is far better than the Kuwaiti-paid for gruel at the AF chow hall.

One last thing: OKAS will be like every other CONUS base any day now. Be ready for all sorts of shoe clerk madness as referenced in other threads.

"2"

Though on the Army Chow hall they were restricting our usage due to the sheer number of people going through there, but if you can go then use it when possible... And if you're into running the perimiter road around the flight line is a nice run at around midnight when the temp gets down to the mid to high 90's...

One last thing Drink heavily before you go because you aren't getting any there.

[HerkDerka]

Lots of queep.

The BX is small, but awesome. In other words they sell stuff that you actually need as opposed to garden hoses and floodlights.

Food is horrible.

Make certain you bring at minimum an IPOD or whatever you have. Playstation/Xbox. A good latptop with a router is a good idea too. That way you can set up a LAN with your buddies and play some games/share MP3s and movies.

The laptop is best becaus you can also watch movies. Bring all of the DVDs you can.

Don't forget suncreen. You'll thank yourself. Bring a bit of warm clothing, it can get damn cold in the desert at night. Also don't forget semi-nice neutral looking civies in case you go off base or break somewhere nice (yeah right).

HD

[Wing Sweep]

They have a pretty nice rec room where you can play playstation/X-Box, watch movies, play ping pong or just chill with your buds. Once a month they have the equivelant of a flea market where you can buy watches, rugs, movies, sunglasses, etc.. Most are imitations of nice brands like Folex (fake Rolex), ###### (fake Tag watches), or Foakleys. You get the drift... They also have tournaments like Texas hold'em, bingo, etc...

Steak and Lobster on Fidays. Not bad for Haji steak and the lobsters good. Great breakfast ommelets. Ice cream always available!

Linda is right in learning some Arabic. It helps to know a little of the lingo if you're going off base. The mall downtown is pretty swanky so dress to impress the local hotties you're not allowed to hook up with. There's a small town called Fajaheel (or something like that) where they sell a lot of nice gold jewelry, colognes and perfumes. It was off limits on and off for a while. Don't know about now.

Bring a one meg thumb drive so you can download a shiite load of music from the common drive to your personal lap top.

I also agree and second the point of having the opportunity to sharpen your knowledge (AFIs, TOs, tactics stuff).

One last thing. If you play musical instruments, the chapel has them available for people to hang out and jam some tunes when there aren't services going on.

Hope this helps.

[Guest Grouch]

Just left there about a month ago. Unlike the days of old the BX there is pretty decent and places like tigerdirect and newegg.com ship there. The uniform nazis are always running around looking for someone to harass. The chowhall still blows as referenced by others, but it is better than it used to be (not saying much, still voted worst chow hall in the aor in my book). During the summer its hot as hell (or hotter with no beer) so be prepped if you're not a hot as the sun weather person. They also opened up a cultural travel program before I left so bring some civies (no hooters tshirt) and you can roll off base (maybe). I would also recommend the laptop for games, an xbox, SOS gouge, Master's work or whatever else normally might keep you entertained. Power is 220 so if you're not from europe you might need a transformer, they sell them in the bx for the usual aafes raping. The ones in the rooms/tents are hit or miss if they actually work. 75 percent of them do, also they usual brit 3 prong plugs. Cheers

[Guest TacAirDrvr]

I am here now, they just built a new part on the gym, very nice! We just had an AEW swap out and the new Nazis (chiefs/shirts) on base think that its fraud waste and a buse to go to the LSA in your PT. I had a convo with a shirt the other day about PT uniforms, and in this conversation I found out that he had never deployed before at that we wear those gay ass PTs because if we don't the terrorists have won.

This place is the worst I have ever been to. I would rather be at Balad and face a motar every once in a while than be here.

Bring some 3 prong 220 plugs for your 110 laptop. If you like to surf the internet, they just opened a little internet cafe but its 5 bucks an hour.

Bring lots of PT gear if you work out because you have to be in PTs when you work out. I have 10 sets of PTs just so I don't have to do laundry but once a week!

Be prepared to win this war over here 1 used tire at a time. You'll know what I am talking about when you get here!

ATOC sucks, and the new MTC sucks worse, you will have to wait for at least a couple of hours before they get out to pick pax up sometimes. So have your nav call his 30 min inbound at like 50 min. MTC = military transport control (HALIBURTAN run) is terrible. No accountablility and is located now way over past the LSA.

I don't know what people are talking about even at night when I try to run outside.....its hot as hell man!!

hope this helps

[Clayton Bigsby]

Originally posted by TacAirDrvr:

ATOC sucks, and the new MTC sucks worse, you will have to wait for at least a couple of hours before they get out to pick pax up sometimes. So have your nav call his 30 min inbound at like 50 min. MTC = military transport control (HALIBURTAN run) is terrible. No accountablility and is located now way over past the LSA.

what he said. They're terrible. Really not joking, pound-your-head-on-the-wall bad. Also look out for them allowing duty pax and anybody else to come out to the aircraft STILL fully armed. No magazine collections, nothing. I don't know how you feel about people being armed up on your aircraft, but usually I prefer to be the only guy packing heat. Although I'm sure those SF guys could jam my M9 up my ass.

Anyway the sad fact is those Halliburton guys could give two shits, they've got the contract. Some of the bus drivers are helpful, but the dispatch people there suck a mean c*ck.

[Berry]

Originally posted by g2s:

Bring a one meg thumb drive so you can download a shiite load of music from the common drive to your personal lap top.

They've set up the network so that you can't download the music onto the computer you're playing it on... in other words, it sort of streams, so you can only "get" one song at a time. The base network also lets you view the movies/tv shows the comm people have, but you can't download those either. It's all ironic considering they have bootleg movies and shows available to watch, but they won't let you have them.

"2" on the previously mentioned bazaar. Grab those haji bootleg DVDs like it's going out of style. When I left they were 3 for $10.

One last note about the pool: Some brain surgeon had the bright idea to actually billet people RIGHT NEXT to the pool. There really is nothing like getting scolded by random shoe E-8 because you've decided to have a little fun in the pool after flying all day over Iraq.

[Guest macbrun]

I'm heading to Ali Al Salem - what's it like there now? Everything still tents? Can we have personal cell phones? Are we still allowed into Kuwait City? I'd appreciate any info that can be passed on.

Thanks!

[LockheedFix]

I'm heading to Ali Al Salem - what's it like there now? Everything still tents? Can we have personal cell phones? Are we still allowed into Kuwait City? I'd appreciate any info that can be passed on.

Thanks!

-Still sucks.

- All hard billets now (sometimes they move you into tents when you are swapping out and new crews need your room). They have trailer type buildings where you share a room with one person and the bathrooms are at the ends of the building and shared by all. They also have newer hard billets that you share with two other people but you have a bathroom with a shower in your room.

- ACs are issued cell phones for alerting, etc. I've never heard of anyone having personal cell phones (I'm not sure who you would call...)

- They do group trips into Kuwait City. You have to take some kind of a cultural sensitivity class first. I've never heard of aircrew going on one, but I'm sure it's been done.

- They've also been trying to get wireless internet access for a fee for about 2 years now, but apparently it is beyond the technical know-how of the Kuwaiti telecommunications industry to figure out how to do it. Either that or their oil subsidies are so high that they don't care if they make a little extra money on the side by supplying the US military with internet access.

[HercDude]

I appreciate all the info! However, I have to confess - I'm a Mx officer - not a bag-wearer. I know they coddle you flyboys (hard billets, etc), so are Mx billeting in tents still? Or have they moved us into the bombed out hangars? ;)

And, as for personal cell phone, I'd call home with mine.

Thanks!

Everyone should be in hard billets now. I haven't been in a year, but almost every one was when I left, and they were building more at the time. Some of them were suites with it's own bath (2-4 people to a room), some were 2 suites with a shared bathroom (2 to a room), and some were 1 bathroom to a building.

You can go downtown on a group trip, but it's kind of a pain because of the class you have to take. I think they still make the chicks cover their entire body except for their face (where is Martha McSally when you need her?) in an abaya.

Get some wheels or make friends with someone who has them on the first day, then go eat at the Army LSA as much as you can. They spent several grand to overhaul the DFAC (or chow hall to the non-mentally challenged), but didn't do a damn thing to change the heinous food.

Some people had personal cell phones that worked, but I think you had to have some special regional chip for your phone to work there . . . look in to it before you go.

Go to the pool, go to the gym, don't get run over by the Kuwaiti's driving 70mph on perimeter road, and you'll have a blast. Each time I left there I was lighter, tanner, a better poker player, and more well-read than when I showed up.

[Guest Boom]

So the food still sucks? When I was there the OG/CC banned us from going to the Army LSA cause it sent a "bad example" of the OG to all be eating better food

[Herk Mafia]

I thought the food was OK. I really didnt think the LSA was any better though. They did have a better selection of desserts though. I left in June and they had just gotten in new weight equipment and the WiFi was up and running pretty much everywhere on the hill. It really wasnt too bad. Bring your own twin sized sheets and when the hajji flea market rolls through buy one of the faux-mink blankets for your bed. The bedding they give you sucks serious ass. Bring you own pillow too. Bring as much PT gear as you can fit in your suitcase, a bunch of DVD's, and a bunch of books. Its actually a pretty good time.

[Toasty]

Its not that bad of a place to be. I'm just finishing my first 120 here. The dorms have everything you need. The food gets repetitive and is known to be one of the lesser chow halls in theater, but the LSA is down the road if you have wheels and there is a Subway/Taco Bell/Pizza joint on the Rock. The weather is getting really nice too- only 105 during the day, 70's at night. I think the Services-to-Ops personnel ratio is like 4-1, though. Coming here to fly?

[HoHum]

Take an external usb wifi antenna and a hellacious usb extension. 15' got mine out the window so I could use the pay wifi service near the dorms. None of us could get repeaters to work. Depending on where the hajis put their repeater towers, you may not need the antenna. Some people just went outdoors to get reception, but if you're worried about that ultra-fine sand getting in your machine, you won't.

The new dorms are definitely a step up. Sharing a shower and shitter with only two other dudes is much better than walkin' across the street to the cadillac!

[Guest 130Navigator]

If you like raquettball, take your own raquet and get used to reserving a court a day or two in advance.

Bring money for subway, because the food is horrible...unless you like "rip-its"

[zrooster99]

Bring some 3 prong 220 plugs for your 110 laptop.

Thread revival! I'm going there pretty soon, can anyone tell me:

What style plug (brit, asian...)? What kind of laundry facilities are there now? How serious are they about GO1 and porn?

[Phil Ken Sebben]

British style plugs, transformer for stuff that isn't dual voltage (look on the plug/back to see if it has something along the lines of Input" 100-240v). The building I'm in has 4 washers and dryers, plus I think there's a few lundry buildings. You get briefed on GO1 when you get here, buuuuuut, if you bring something don't leave it sitting out in your room and an external hard drive isn't a bad idea. The food isn't all that bad, just repetitive, and there's a Taco Bell, pizza place, etc on the rock. The BX is pretty good, small, but they carry the right stuff. Overall, not a bad place to be.

Edited October 22, 2008 by NapesWVU

[capt4fans]

I was at Salem last summer, and now having been at the Deid, I'd give it up in a heartbeat in order to go back to Salem. That being said, I have to relay a quote that one of my buddies that was there last summer said.

Outside at the smoke pit and with our Cubans from Jordan, talking about how far that base had come, and he says, "You know if they make this base any nicer, they're going to kick out the Herc Guys and turn it over to the C-17's."

After being there last summer and the changes to now, the miniscule number of Hercs that are there, I see just how right he was.

[Toasty]

I'm at OKAS now- still no commercial wireless in the dorm rooms, you just have to step outside to get signal. I heard they're working on getting free wifi hotspots at the Oasis and the FLEX, and extending the commercial wifi to inside the dorms...which would be sweet.

The food is the worst in the AOR, everyone knows that. The LSA is still the best place to get food.

The movie selection at the theater is getting better. They actually have Quantum of Solace playing tonight...last year it was all terrible B-movies.

Dorms aren't bad at all- 3 to a room, private bathrooms. Laundry machines down the hall. Everything is within 10 min walking distance.

No beer, but I'd rather be here than the Deid. There's alot less queep here.

[TopperHarley]

Appreciate the info Toasty. I was hearing 2 to a room. But it don't matter. Two... three... it's all the same. Plan on spending all my free time at the gym anyways. The room is just a place to sleep. Bummer on the food though. Though I guess crappy food will keep me from eating too much of it. Maybe it's the AF's way of getting us all down to that 32 inch waste measurement.

~Topper

[Guest MtnHomeAMMO]

I am going to be on TCN duty here in the very near future. What can I expect? Is it 12's 6 days a week? What should I pack, just pt gear, pillows, blankets? Any civilian attire? How is the BX? Anything to help my trip (that i'm very much not looking forward to) better, would be very appreciated!